Strategy Resources
Top 10 Strategy Books in 2024Let us help you demystify strategic planning
Top 10 Books on Strategy
What are the top 10 strategy books for 2024? We’ve taken a really good look and come up with the list below. The list is in two parts, first, are the books published recently, not neccessarily in 2024, and second, the all-time greats that every strategist should take the time to read. Oh, we added an eleventh bonus book as well!
The One-Hour Strategy
The One-Hour Strategy is an inspiring read with a refreshingly different outlook compared to other strategy books. Kraaijenbrink offers a practical and powerful approach to engage the entire organisation in strategy and help bridge the gap between strategy and execution.
The Geek Way
A new model is being pioneered by geeks; a radical new mindset that has shifted the paradigm entirely on what a business can – and should – be. They do not follow the rules of the Industrial era, with their hierarchies and bureaucratic ways of thinking. They do not follow the principles preached in business schools since the dawn of time.
The Metaverse
What, exactly, is the metaverse? As pioneering theorist and venture capitalist Matthew Ball explains, it is the successor to the mobile internet that has defined the last two decades. The metaverse is a persistent, 3D, virtual world―a network of interconnected experiences and devices, tools and infrastructure, far beyond mere virtual reality.
Competing in the age of AI
When traditional operating constraints are removed through the use of technology, strategy turns into something where existing rules no longer apply. Packed with examples, including many from the most powerful and innovative global, AI-driven companies, and based on research in hundreds of firms across many sectors, this is your essential guide for rethinking how your company should compete and operates in the era of AI.
Reality Check
Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are part of a new wave of immersive technologies that offer huge opportunities for businesses, across industries and regardless of their size. Most people think of AR or VR as a new development in video gaming like Pokémon GO, or an expensive marketing campaign by the Nikes of the world. The truth is, businesses of any size can put these new technologies to immediate use.
Lead from the Future
Mark W. Johnson and Josh Suskewicz introduce a new way of thinking and managing, called “future-back,” that enables any manager to become a practical visionary. Addressing the many barriers to change that exist in established organizations, they present a systematic approach to overcoming them
No Filter
No Filter: The inside story of how Instagram transformed business, celebrity and our culture. Sarah Frier reveals how Instagram became the hottest app in a generation, reshaping our culture and economy in the process. The book explores how Instagram became global business, creating a new economy of ‘influencers’ and pioneering a business model that sells an aspirational lifestyle to all of us.
HBR’s 10 Must Reads
Strictly speaking, this is not a book, it is a collection of articles from the Harvard Business Review including authors from Satya Nadella to Lynda Gratton and company examples from Nestlé to TikTok, this volume brings the most current and important management conversations right to your fingertips.
The All Time Greats…
Blue Ocean Strategy
Recognised as one of the most iconic strategy books ever written, now updated with fresh content from the authors, it argues that cutthroat competition results in nothing but a bloody red ocean of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves, the authors argue that lasting success comes not from battling competitors but from creating “blue oceans”, untapped new market spaces ripe for growth.
Good Strategy Bad Strategy
With nearly 700 positive ratings on Amazon, this book has grown in popularity since its publication in 2011. For Rumelt, the heart of good strategy is insight into the power in any situation, and into the response. Drawing on examples of the good and the bad from across all sectors and all ages, he shows how this insight can be cultivated with a wide variety of tools that lead to better thinking and better strategy.
Crossing the Chasm
Crossing the Chasm was first published in 1991, nearly twenty years ago! The book has become a student marketeers textbook. Revised in 2014 Geoffrey Moore’s ideas about taking products to market are as current now as they have ever been. The third edition brings Moore’s work up to date with dozens of new examples of successes and failures, new strategies for marketing in the digital world.
The 4 Disciplines of Execution
The consultants, Franklin Covey are absolute masters when it comes to strategic execution. Their explanation of the ‘whirlwind’ of the day-job has been used in strategic process classes around the world. The concept of the Law of Diminishing Returns, although not invented by Franklin Covey, has become synonymous with their name. The message of this book is clear, separate the day job from strategic execution.
Key Performance Indicators
The 75 measures every manager needs to know. If you think this book is not about strategy, you couldn’t be more wrong. If you buy this book it will sit on your desk within easy reach and become well-thumbed. Most organisations are great at developing strategies. Most organisations fail at implementing a strategy. And the single most important tool in implementation is connecting your measures to your strategic objectives. We do not advocate that all your measures should come from this book (quite the opposite actually) but it will give you a head start.
The Strategy Focused Organisation
Kaplan and Norton are the biggest proponents of the Balanced Scorecard strategic methodology, and yes, if you didn’t know, it is a strategic methodology, not a scorecard! They wrote this book as a follow-up to the Balanced Scorecard revising the approach and adding more than twenty in-depth case studies. For anyone involved in strategic planning this book is still a definitive must-read textbook.
A Bonus Book…
Thinking Fast and Slow
Aimed at individuals to help them understand the way they think, this is a book for strategic thinkers and not specifically about strategy. Why is there more chance we’ll believe something if it’s in a bold typeface? Why are judges more likely to deny parole before lunch? The answer lies in the two ways we make choices: fast, intuitive thinking, and slow, rational thinking. The book reveals how our minds are tripped up by error and prejudice and gives practical advice for slower, smarter thinking.
Last Thoughts…
If you have read all of the above and reached this point well done! You must be really interested in strategy. If you like our selection of strategy books then we have done our job. If you are wondering why a book has been missed out, then let us know, we are always on the lookout for good books.